Screwball

[Shawn]

I’ve seen true screwball spin.

One was a lefty who’s top speed was 53. She was a good pitcher, played D1. Her shoulder/arm was permanently messed up. She said and I quote, it’s easier on the arm/shoulder if you can just rear back and let it fly.

Another time was with my niece. She was trying to throw a rise and she was throwing perfect screwball spin at a John Gay clinic. She was throwing perfect screwballs. The story ends there, just one of those things where you throw a perfect spin for a day.

The 3rd one I saw was a D1 freshman, I can’t remember the team. It was in a UW classic in Seattle. I was directly behind the plate. I think it was kind of a one trick pony. The only thing she could throw.

None of them did the exaggerated step to the side and throw inside. They all had true spin break.

 

[ArmWhip]

Theoretically you could throw screw spin with a fingers down release, the opposite of a rollover curve. But anatomically you are limited with how much hand/wrist action you can get with the fingers down, inside the ball release versus the fingers down, outside the ball, rollover curve release. Typically when a pitcher tries the fingers down, inside the ball release the ball comes off when the fingers are pointing at the plate so the ball has mostly bullet spin.

 

[mmeece]

I always hate the debate about a "true" screwball. The only thing you really need to know is whether the pitch gets hit hard or gets outs. I've coached girls who threw a "screwball" that was definitely just an inside bullet spin pitch, but was still effective. My dd threw a typical screwball and a version of her drop that moved in as well. Both were very effective for her and neither was perfect screwball spin. Of course, I've also seen girls who simply stepped left and threw right get those pitches hit hard by good hitters. If it gets outs it really doesn't matter what you call it.

 

[ArmWhip]

I always hate the debate about a "true" screwball. The only thing you really need to know is whether the pitch gets hit hard or gets outs. I've coached girls who threw a "screwball" that was definitely just an inside bullet spin pitch, but was still effective. My dd threw a typical screwball and a version of her drop that moved in as well. Both were very effective for her and neither was perfect screwball spin. Of course, I've also seen girls who simply stepped left and threw right get those pitches hit hard by good hitters. If it gets outs it really doesn't matter what you call it.

The problem is that there are a lot of pitchers out there throwing a screwball just because it's a 'screwball', regardless of whether it works or not. And they're also wasting a lot of time working on it. I was at a showcase last summer where probably 75% of the pitchers listed the screwball as their 3rd pitch, right after fastball and change up.